Bondage

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I was listening to a pastor in Texas preach a sermon on God’s mercy, and from a comment he made this blog post jumped into my head. I hope you enjoy it, if not, it wasn’t my idea anyway. The pastor spoke about how the mercy of God was displayed when He went looking for Adam and Eve in the garden after they had sinned. The God of all creation went looking for Adam and Eve even after they had sinned. Is that not mercy? He made the comment also that God comes looking for us, extending His great mercy through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Several more stories he touched on that displayed God’s mercy, but the one I was captivated by was the story of Moses and the Egyptian enslavement.

The decendants of Jacob endured bondage at the hands of the Egyptians for many centuries. They were enslaved in a prison of fear, afraid to leave, hating to stay. Every day more work, more lashes of the whip. They lived with burden of slavery into which they were born. They did not voluntarily choose this life, it was thrust upon them.

The Egyptian bondage is a picture of sin. We did not choose sin, we were born into it. Every day we labored under the load of guilt in filthiness. We were held captive to sin, unable to free ourselves: then came the deliverer. What Moses was to the Israelites, Christ is to the lost in the world today. For just as Moses led the people out of the land of oppression and to the Red Sea, Jesus Christ, The Way, leads us out of sin and to the crimson flood of Calvary.

First, look at how God tests the faith of His People at the Red Sea. With the Egyptian army behind them and a sea before, they had nowhere to go. All that was left was faith, and when all you have is faith, you’ll find that faith is all you need. The children of Israel trusted, and God brought a miracle to them.

But, after God tests their faith and works His miracles to prove His faithfulness and power, He removes the presence of fear. The Egyptians were swept away when the Red Sea fell back in on itself, removing the fear and the remembrance of the Hebrew’s captivity. Likewise, when we trust God and have faith that He will deliver us, not only does He deliver us from sin, but He removes the sin from us.

We were saved from the power of sin and that power was destroyed when we trusted in Christ. We have been led out of captivity and into glorious freedom. God in His mercy came looking for us, He sought us out because He loved us.

So, when people ask you, “why do bad things happen in the world? How can God be merciful if He allows these things to happen?”, you can answer them with this: God came looking for you. The God of eternity condescended to our level because He loved us enough to come looking for us. To save us from our sin, He came down from Heaven’s throne, His mercy extended to fallen man, so that we could make Heaven home.

He did not have to come, He did not have to die, yet, He did so willingly. Is that not mercy? Coming down to where we are, saving us when we did not deserve it, seeking for us when we lived in sin and darkness, this is the mercy and the love of God for you and me. Behold, what love the father has lavished.